Dexter — Killer TV No 14

‘There’s something strange and disarming about looking at a homicide scene in the daylight in Miami. It makes the most grotesque killings look staged, like you’re in a new and daring section of Disneyland – Dahmerland.’ – Dexter Morgan

Identikit: Dexter Morgan uses his job as a blood-spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police as cover for his secret compulsion to murder people like himself – serial killers.

HBO bosses were horrified when Tony Soprano, star of the show, committed his first onscreen murder in episode five of The Sopranos. The boundaries of the TV anti-hero were pushed to breaking point in a short time, seven years later, with the arrival of Dexter. The premise is unhinged. Dexter Morgan is a Miami police blood-spatter analyst and closet serial killer, the drama’s hero/antihero. Dexter follows ‘the Code’ set out by his father, Harry, who wanted to keep him from murdering the innocent. This decreed that Dexter’s victims had to be murderers who killed without any justification. He must also, like a comic-book superhero, avoid having his secret persona exposed at all costs, forever to ape normal emotions and pretend to be normal. The series pushed the premise to breaking point by suggesting that a psychopath might develop certain feelings for those around him (his baby son, his step sister). His ‘feelings’ always seem open to question (Dex doesn’t know who he is, so our fascination with him centres on our own attempts to puzzle him out). There is usually enough ambiguity about Dexter’s motivations to keep the tension bubbling, and by toying with the reality of the serial killer’s cold mentality, the series successfully explored the mind of these modern bogeymen. Dexter is something of a subversive social commentator – being so phoney, a ‘near perfect hologram’ of a man, he can easily spot the insincerity and machinations of those around him. And of course he is always way ahead of the cops in predicting a serial killer’s next move. Inspired by Jeff Lindsay’s slightly camp novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, its distinctive features were black humour, chilling tension and gruesome violence, and it successfully continued to ‘entertain’ for eight seasons. We’ve seen him stalk and be stalked by the Ice Truck Killer and the Trinity Killer, evading detection as the Bay Harbor Butcher, dispatching his evil brother Rudy, marrying and having a child with Rita, who is then murdered, leaving Dex as a single parent and with certain surprising feelings he never knew he had. Michael C Hall’s deadpan performance and narration have been key to its success. But it has been controversial, receiving criticism for its empathy with a killer. Always a minority taste, Dexter is TV on a knife’s edge, so to speak – a lurid and provocative take on a modern obsession and contemporary life.

Music: the main theme is written by Rolfe Kent.

Classic episode:The Getaway, the finale to series four. The writers had the courage to dispatch one of the show’s popular and best developed characters, Rita (Julie Benz). Dex believes he has got Rita to go ahead of him on a belated honeymoon, only for him to find her dead, along with Harrison sitting in her blood, fearing the boy will be traumatised as Dexter was in childhood. It appears Rita is the victim of John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer, whom Dexter has killed, but too late – he realises he had feelings for Rita and blames himself for her death. Season four is one of the most highly regarded series, and viewers were rocked by this finale. Michael C Hall and John Lithgow both won Golden Globes for their performances.

Watercooler fact: Jeff Lindsay was inspired to create the psychopathic vigilante when watching an audience of businessmen. He says,’I was speaking to a businessmen’s lunch. I was sitting at the head table and watching them smiling when they didn’t mean it and handing out business cards, and the idea popped into my head – serial murder isn’t always a bad thing. Not that I wanted to kill all these people, but it occurred to me that technically you could justify it. I started technically justifying it on the back of napkins and by the time I went home that day I had an outline for the first book and the idea for Dexter himself… I think it’s important that Dexter kills people who, according to his code, deserve it, and it’s a code that we can all agree with, to some degree at least. I wanted Dexter to be likeable. I wanted people to catch themselves rooting for a killer, and hopefully pause and go, Huh, is that right?’

Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits.

• PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire. We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits…

• ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors…

• WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012. After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

• Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin.

• Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON, who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie…

• ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15. It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her…

• CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK, one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege.

• SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television…

• Scottish author TONY BLACK, creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead.

• Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR, author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks.

• Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning.

• Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall). CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits…

• We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities.

• ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh. She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits…

• Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities…